Organization

Admin

Teatro Regio di Torino

Baritone

Pablo Battaglia

Monsieur Durozeau

Baritone (+3)

Guillaume Andrieux

Monsieur Renaud

Stage director

Stage director (+4)

Arnaud Bernard

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+1)

Fiammetta Baldiserri

Costume designer

Costume designer (+1)

Carla Ricotti

Set designer

Alessandro Camera

Video

Marcello Alongi

Chorusmaster

Chorusmaster (+2)

Ulisse Trabacchin

Orchestra

Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino

Chorus

Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma

Tenor

Giuseppe Infantino

Edmondo

Baritone (+1)

Janusz Nosek

Un sergent

Conductor

Conductor (+1)

Guillaume Tourniaire

Assistant Stage Director

Yamal Das Irmich

Francesco Salvadori

Lescaut

Mezzo-soprano (+3)

Manuela Custer

Madame Bancelin

Lamia Beuque

Marguerite

Tenor (+4)

Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani

Gervais

Assistant Lighting Designer

Oscar Frosio

Renato Palumbo

Stage director (+5)

Marina Bianchi

Assistant Costume Designer

Valeria Benatti

Baritone (+2)

Alessandro Luongo

Bass (+4)

Carlo Lepore

Geronte di Ravoir

Didier Pieri

Un lampionaio

Mezzo-soprano (+1)

Reut Ventorero

Un musico

Soprano (+3)

Rocío Pérez

Manon Lescaut

Tenor (+1)

Sebastien Gueze

Des Grieux

Soprano

Erika Grimaldi

Marie-Eve Munger

Armando Noguera

Marquis d'Hérigny

Charles Belly

Roberto Aronica

Maria Teresa Leva

Edward Nelson

Gurgen Buveyan

Marco Ciaponi

Dinara Alieva

From the 1830s to 1850s, Daniel Auber and his librettist Eugène Scribe were true superstars of French opéra comique. The secret to their success? Stories in which the characters fumble their way through growing adversity, aided by incredible plot twists and turns, set to light-hearted music marked by irresistible melodies. One of the pair’s most enduring successes was their 1856 opera Manon Lescaut, based on the novel by the Abbé Prévost.


As the prurient elements of the story made it unsuitable for the respectable audiences of mid-nineteenth century theatres, Scribe transformed Manon into a frivolous young woman, who sincerely falls in love with Des Grieux but has the misfortune to always find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Manon’s part was written for a coloratura soprano with the bravura to deliver “C’est l’histoire amoureuse,” renowned as the “éclat de rire,” or laughing aria, for it sharp, shrill laughs. The opera and the original novel converge only in their endings, where Manon is deported and dies of hardship in a wasteland—never before had an opéra comique featured such a tragic conclusion.

Photos